The Los Angeles Police Department has angered officials of the Latino Equality Alliance after saying that a man flinging bags of poop at their center is not criminally prosecutable.
Members of the Mi Centro LGBTQ Community Center in Boyle Heights have been cleaning up small bags of dog poop being deposited at the center for months. They say it’s an expression of hate-filled fecal vandalism against the LGBTQ community.
‘This “legal loophole” has left the center and its youth vulnerable to continued harassment without consequence.’
In August, the center posted an image of the dog poop in a post on Facebook that called the acts “abhorrent” as well as “unacceptable.” Some of the poop was tossed onto the awning in front of the center.
Months later, a suspect was identified with the aid of surveillance video, but police reportedly told the center that the dog poop deposits “do not meet the threshold for criminal prosecution.” Because the man has left poop inside of bags, it only meets the far lower standard of a littering infraction.
“This ‘legal loophole’ has left the center and its youth vulnerable to continued harassment without consequence,” reads a statement from the center.
LEA Executive Director Eddie Martinez told the media that police needed “substantial evidence” to prove the acts constituted a hate crime.
“They said a bag of poop is not enough to be arrested,” Martinez lamented.
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Bell Police Department Chief Damian Velasco said at the same press conference that officers had contacted the suspect and were waiting to hear from him to determine “what the mindset is and what exactly is going on.”
The center describes itself as serving LGBTQ+ persons of “Latinx” and “Latine” descent.
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